Wall Street ignores world stocks plunge, ends mixed

At the close of trading Thursday, the Dow Jones industrials were down 79.40 points or 0.32% at 24,947.67

The Standard and Poor's 500 lost 4.11 points or 0.15% to 2,695.95

The Nasdaq Composite gained 29.83 points or 0.42% to 7,188.26

NEW YORK, New York – U.S. stocks outperformed on Thursday, shrugging off a bloodbath which began in Asia and intensified in Europe.

Major European bourses fell more than 3% across the board, while in Asia losses averaged around 2%.

U.S. industrial stocks, which plummeted early, recovered off their losses to finish with only minor losses, while tech shares actually gained on the day.

"The market had gotten way oversold," Gary Bradshaw, senior vice president and portfolio manager at Hodges Capital Management in Dallas told Reuters. "Investors looked up and saw they could buy good companies at much cheaper valuations than they could a couple of months ago."

At the close of trading Thursday, the Dow Jones industrials were down 79.40 points or 0.32% at 24,947.67.

The Standard and Poor's 500 lost 4.11 points or 0.15% to 2,695.95.

The Nasdaq Composite gained 29.83 points or 0.42% to 7,188.26.

On foreign exchange markets, the euro was changing hands at 1.1380 in late trading in New York on Thursday. The British pound firmed to 1.2787, while the Japanese yen rose to 112.68.

The Swiss franc was in demand, last quoted at 0.9932.

The Canadian dollar declined, falling sharply to 1.3383. The Australian and New Zealand dollars too were sold off, last fetching 0.7235 and 0.6881 respectively.